Colorado agriculture, outdoors would get a boost with passage of Farm Bill

In Colorado, the next time you’re rafting a beautiful river stretch, fly-fishing in a blue-ribbon stream, or watching geese arc across the sunset, thank the Farm Bill.

Anglers, hunters, kayakers, campers and nature enthusiasts — all Coloradans who care about healthy soil, water and wild places — have a stake in the Farm Bill, which authorizes some of the nation’s most successful conservation programs.

How do farms and fishing intersect? Consider that more than half of the nation’s wildlife habitat is on private land, much of it agricultural. Farm Bill conservation programs have helped farmers, ranchers, and landowners dramatically improve thousands of miles of river and streams and millions of acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat. And that boosts wildlife and recreation opportunities for anglers, hunters and others downstream.

For many farmers and ranchers, investing in new irrigation upgrades — not to mention stream habitat improvements — is often cost-prohibitive.

The Farm Bill’s little-known but highly effective conservation programs — the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Agricultural Water Enhancement Program, among others — help support infrastructure upgrades and conservation projects that benefit agricultural operations while enhancing stream health and wildlife habitat.

These projects foster good-faith collaboration among landowners, government agencies, conservation groups and other partners, helping them leverage resources in a way that serves a great diversity of needs.

In this summer of drought, wildfires and other habitat pressures, Trout Unlimited is undertaking exciting work in Colorado and across the West to restore watersheds, improve stream flows, and increase the resiliency of our streams and rivers against natural calamities. We couldn’t do much of this work without the help of Farm Bill conservation programs.

For example, in Delta County near Cedaredge, Trout Unlimited is working with a rancher and the Natural Resource Conservation Service to upgrade several antiquated water diversions that block trout from accessing habitat. With the help of Farm Bill resources, the rancher’s operational systems will improve and healthy stream flows will boost habitat and recreation opportunities in the basin. It’s a win-win.

In southwestern Colorado, irrigators in the Montezuma Valley and Mancos River areas have used Farm Bill conservation programs for many years to improve on-farm irrigation infrastructure and to enhance wildlife and stream habitat. Much of this work is part of the Colorado River Salinity Control Program, which has strong support not only in Colorado, but also across the other six Colorado River Basin states.

This is conservation that works for Colorado, generating economic activity through project installation and outdoor recreation while keeping control in the hands of producers and landowners.

Recently, the U.S. Senate renewed the Farm Bill in impressive bipartisan fashion. The Senate’s bill cuts costs and streamlines programs while promising to remain effective where it matters most: on the ground.

Colorado was well-represented in the hearings and debates leading up to the bill’s passage. Sen. Michael Bennet understands how much conservation programs mean to rural communities as well as to Colorado’s multibillion-dollar tourism and recreation economy. In his post on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Bennet worked to ensure that these and many of Colorado’s other interests are reflected in the new Farm Bill.

Now it’s up to the House to follow the Senate’s strong lead. We urge Rep. Scott Tipton and others in our state’s House delegation to continue to show leadership on this critical issue and get a Farm Bill passed this year.

Farm Bill conservation programs work for America. Let our lawmakers know that you support this commonsense, pragmatic investment in our farms, ranches and Western outdoor heritage.

Russ Schnitzer is agriculture policy advisor for Trout Unlimited, a national sportsmen’s conservation group whose mission is to conserve, protect and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. He lives in Denver.

The Conservation message is great..The Ag Bill is mainly about propping up Industrial Agriculture ,which is killing our soils..no living soils means no food..Propping up Monsanto,Cargill,Corporate cows,pigs and chickens is literally killing us

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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